Though the insurers won the insurance mandate they wanted from President Barack Obama and the Democrats, they opposed the overall bill and now say they want to be sure the regulations they face aren't onerous. A Republican-controlled Congress might accomplish that by pressuring the Health and Human Services Department through its control of the department's budget or by subjecting regulators to congressional hearings.

A central worry for insurers is a planned requirement that companies spend a minimum 80 percent of premiums on medical care or rebate the difference to policy holders. They also want a say in defining what would be considered "excessive" premium increases that could expose an insurance company to sanctions.

The attention to regulation is also playing out at the state level, where insurance regulators hold significant sway. Between 2005 and 2008, health insurance companies and health maintenance organizations contributed more than $32 million to state office holders, political parties and ballot measure committees, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The top four insurers - WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna - gave a quarter of that amount.  link

That new legislation could, for example, establish an enhanced Medicare program that would phase in first for those, say, 55-64, then for those 45-54 and so on, with none of this first-you-have-to-be-denied-by-a-private-insurance-company nonsense.

This would be the best form of "public option" available, and would, I think, lay a foundation for transition to a single-payer system.  I see no reason it would not work from a care standpoint - which is what this should have been about all along - notwithstanding the problems people feel we have with the existing Medicare program - that can be solved without reducing benefits.

As the enhanced program is being phased in, the private insurance industry needs to be subject to serious regulation, Wall Street be damned.  For all the fear that if Congress makes the industry mad and it will cut off the campaign and PAC contributions that help them get re-elected - have they even considered how happy people of all political persuasions  - including business owners large and small - would be to vote for the people and the party that made health CARE a right and not a privilege afforded only to the wealthy?

This bill let's the insurers off the hook unfortunately.